Robert Hettinga's Resume

Robert A. Hettinga

44 Farquhar Street
Boston, MA 02131

Accomplishments

Freelance Digital Commerce Analyst. I write rants and articles (InfoWorld, Wired, Time/Pathfinder), I speak (Internet World, Apple) and organize conferences (see below) on the subjects of digital commerce, financial cryptography, geodesic networks and markets, and the consequences of these emerging technologies on the way we will live and work.
Mostly, I like to think and write about the effects of digital bearer certificate technology on financial markets of all kinds, from micropayments to digital cash to digital bearer securities. I've also written a lot about OpenDoc as geodesic software, and the eventual dissolution of application-focused software markets at the hands of component software and secure digital cash transactions on public networks.
I founded or helped found several interest groups in digital commerce and financial cryptography:
- ecm, a mail list creating a secondary market for digital cash certificates.
- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston a local monthly luncheon/program group which discusses and promotes digital commerce. Founding moderator.
- the e$ lists e$pam and e$, e$pam consists of digital commerce and financial cryptography postings from other newsgroups and mail lists, and e$ is an unmoderated discussion list on the technology and consequences of digital commerce and financial cryptography. Both lists are commercially sponsored.
- I'm a contributing editor to the Journal of Internet Commerce and Banking.
- I'm on the editorial boards of a couple of other internet 'zines, including First Monday, one started up by Esther Dyson.
- mac-crypto, a list devoted to the discussion of Macintosh cryptography and digital commerce.
- I'm active on lots of other lists, including net-thinkers, a private list of prominent Macintosh internet people assembled by Apple Evangelism, all the cryptography and digital commerce lists, including cypherpunks, ecash, www-buyinfo, etc. As part of what I do for e$pam, I lurk and forward about 30-50 relevant messages a day out of about 100 different e-mail and usenet newsgroups.
- I'm putting together a financial cryptography and digital commerce workshop and conference on Anguila at the end of February 1997. A bunch of us on mac-crypto are kicking around the idea of a Macintosh digital commerce conference. I've been invited to speak at Internet World Phillipines in September.
Before I got interested in the net, I flirted with the software publishing business. I bootstrapped a little company to market workflow management software for professional workgroups (see ProjectServer, below). I negotiated ownership rights from the people we developed if for. Copies of the product's literature were inserted into MacProject Pro boxes for a while. I developed collateral material, marketing programs, promotion plans. I attended tradeshows, did press interviews. I also crashed and burned. Someone much bigger eventually used our product name without even knowing we were there.
For a contract I had at Polaroid, I designed and led the development of ProjectServerÅ, a simple but powerful workflow management tool for Macintosh and Windows environments. ProjectServer automatically updated project management files using a FileMaker database. Project managers saw their project status in MacProject Pro, and a workgroup member saw a FileMaker Pro "do-list" of all his/her tasks across all the projects he or she was involved in. This is the product I was selling above.
Designed a quick and dirty Mac-based fax-on-demand system for use with both single users and workgroups.
Assisted a senior manager at Polaroid with a reorganization of the Marketing Services Department. Charted process flows, determined critical paths and the lowest cycle time for marketing programs. Helped sell the structure to employees and senior management.
Developed automated management reporting and transaction forecasting system for the travel auditing subsidiary of a major banking corporation. I got awards. I was a spreadsheet mechanic from hell, for a while, there...
Assisted a quantitative financial analyst in selling his algorithms and software. Got him in the door at a few financial information vendors, helped him think up new markets for his products.

Employment History

Apr'93 - Shipwright Development Corporation, Boston, MA
Owner. Internet commerce consulting. Business development work. Software design and systems integration, operations /project management reporting and analysis. Lots of little contracts for Polaroid, Fidelity, Vidal Sasoon Salons, Entergy Services, Simple Access.

Jul'89 - Shipwright Business Development Services, Boston, MA
Proprietor. Contract/Interim Analytic Services. Management, Marketing, and Operations Reporting Systems Development.

Feb'88 - Jun'89. Citicorp Information Management Services, Boston, MA
Brought in as a contractor, hired as an MIS Analyst, promoted to assistant project manager. Won Citicorp's "Changemaker" Award, September, 1988.

Feb'87 - Feb'88. Fidelity Investor Information Services, Boston, MA
Contractor. Management Report System Development.

Sep'85 - Nov'86. The Exchange National Bank, Chicago, IL
Contractor. Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Analytics Development.

Sep'85 - Nov'86. University of Chicago Computation Center, Chicago, IL
3rd Shift Production Expediter. My introduction to the internet. Read lots of news, smoked big cigars, ate too much pizza.

Feb'84 - Jul'85. Hayes & Griffith, Inc., Chicago, IL
Contractor Administration, Operations. (Startup Investment Banking Firm)

Dec'81 - Jan'84. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., Chicago, IL
Administration Clerk, Operations Department.

Education

Cambridge College

Some graduate coursework in Management, Marketing Management, Financial Accounting, Organizational Behavior

University Of Chicago, Student-at-Large Program

Undergraduate and graduate coursework in Math, Computer Science, Statistics, and Economics
Attended January, 1984 to April, 1985
Transferred credit to Missouri for graduation

University Of Missouri

BA, Philosophy, 1984
Attended 1977 - 81
Way too much student government experience

Interests

Financial Cryptography, Digital Commerce.
Sailing (offshore cruising, multi-hulls)
Blues Harmonica and Electric Guitar
Space Enthusiast
Church (Unitarian) Standing Committee
YRUU Youth Advisor